Jurgen Klopp claims he had to convince Jordan Henderson to go on holiday following England’s semifinal run at this summer’s World Cup and expects to be without him and Dejan Lovren for Liverpool’s Premier League opener against West Ham.

Henderson and Croatia defender Lovren both helped their countries to the semifinal and final, respectively, in Russia, and Klopp has given each player time to recover before rejoining Reds training. Henderson will report back Aug. 5 and Lovren will be back the following day, giving the duo less than a week to be fit for the Aug. 12 match against the Hammers.

However, Klopp said the former Sunderland midfielder needed some coaxing to take the time off.cheap nfl jerseys from china nike

“It was a hard fight to convince him that he needed a holiday,” Klopp said on Thursday. “I knew it would happen. On the phone, I said ‘crazy’.

“Jordan needs a holiday, so that means Aug. 5 he will be back. Dejan had a party in Croatia and played a day later [than Henderson at the World Cup], so he will be back on Aug. 6.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, who travelled to Russia but played in just one match, is a different story, Klopp added.

“With Trent, I have a special agreement,” he said.

“He wanted to be in earlier as well. As he’s very young, I said ‘OK, have two weeks’ holiday and then we’ll speak and see.’

“If you asked Trent, he would be good to join us in Evian [for their training camp].

“But I’m not sure I will do that. I want to have them desperately but the season is really long.”

Klopp warned of the toll the international schedule is taking on players and their clubs.

Klopp said: “I don’t want to get too football political but if they don’t stop with these games — they are now making it the Nations Cup to make it more important — then all these players who played at the World Cup have to go there again.cheap nfl jerseys nike china

“We had four players in the [World Cup] semis, which is OK, we can deal with that. Tottenham had nine players in the semis. I have no clue how they will do it. That’s a big challenge. It’s a really tough thing to deal with, and in the future we have to change it.

“They play the World Cup, then the Nations Cup, next summer is the final of the Nations Cup, which is really crazy. Everything is now so important in football and we have to collect their bones afterwards, more or less.”